Jack’s Take: Omar Cooper Jr. Remained Loyal To Indiana – And It’s Paying Off

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Before the season, Indiana’s wide receiver room was viewed as perhaps the best position group on the team. The main question was which receivers would become the top options in a deep room. 

James Madison transfer Elijah Sarratt leads the group with 22 receptions and 378 yards through five games, but returning Hoosier Omar Cooper Jr. is close behind. The redshirt sophomore’s loyalty to Indiana through the coaching change has paid off, and the potential that many saw out of high school is being fulfilled in the Big Ten.

Cooper has emerged as one of the nation’s top wide receivers this season through five games. He ranks fourth among all qualified wide receivers in the FBS with an 88.3 receiving grade, per Pro Football Focus (PFF). His offense grade of 86.0 is close behind at No. 6 in the nation.

Cooper played a key role in a momentum-shifting drive on Saturday against Maryland. Despite a sloppy first half, Indiana still had a chance to take the lead going into halftime. 

After a Mikail Kamara sack, the Hoosiers’ called a timeout and got the ball back on their own 37-yard line with 1:10 left in the second quarter. It faced little adversity throughout four dominant wins to begin this season, so this possession was perhaps the first glimpse at quarterback Kurtis Rourke and the Hoosiers in a pressure-packed situation with the game tied at 7-7.

A nine-yard completion to Ty Son Lawton started the drive, and Rourke found Cooper down the sideline on the next play. Cooper spun past the first Maryland defender, then smartly veered out of bounds to stop the clock after his 27-yard gain.

Facing press coverage on the next play, Cooper made a quick move near the line of scrimmage to get a step ahead of his defender. Rourke looked his way again down the right sideline, and Cooper turned around at the goal line to haul in the touchdown with a defender blanketed over him.

Rourke and Cooper have played just five games together, but the perfect timing looked like a quarterback-receiver duo that had been in sync for years. With back-to-back 27-yard completions to Cooper, Indiana needed just three plays and 32 seconds to score just before halftime and take a 14-7 lead.

“I know that Kurtis will always trust me,” Cooper said postgame. “So I just wanted to make sure that I did my best and made a play when the ball was in the air.”

Rourke threw two interceptions on Indiana’s first two drives, but he bounced back with a pair of touchdown drives in the second quarter.

“I think it was something that we wish would have happened sooner,” Rourke said of the touchdown drives. “But it was definitely really important to have some momentum going into half. Going into the second half, it brought a lot of confidence in me, and I know the rest of the offense, as well as the whole team. Our defense was playing great to that point, and so for us to capitalize finally was really important.” 

Indiana’s offense looked past early mistakes and took control of the game in the second half. In seven second-half drives, Indiana scored four touchdowns, punted twice and fumbled once. The 28 second-half points helped the Hoosiers secure a 42-28 win over Maryland and their first 5-0 start since 1967.

Rourke completed passes to 10 Hoosiers on Saturday. Spreading the wealth is a consistent theme this season, but Cooper and Sarratt were his most frequent targets. Sarratt led the team with seven catches for 128 yards and a touchdown, and Cooper was next with four receptions for 83 yards and one touchdown.

Indiana coach Curt Cignetti said both receivers did a good job of winning their one-on-one matchups against press coverage, like on Cooper’s touchdown. Sarratt is beginning to prove himself at the Big Ten level after ranking 11th nationally in receiving yards in 2023 at James Madison, and Cooper is well on his way to a breakout season.

“I like my odds whenever I throw the ball in their area,” Rourke said. “I just gotta make sure they can get their hands on it, because they can make plays like they did today.”

Through five games, Cooper has already surpassed last season’s totals across nine games played. He has 16 receptions for 328 yards and three touchdowns in 2024, compared to 18 catches for 267 yards and two touchdowns this season.

Cooper’s breakout season does not come as a major surprise. It was only a matter of time for the 6-foot, 201-pound receiver. 

At Lawrence North High School in Indianapolis, Ind., Cooper finished his career with 132 receptions for 2,856 yards, and 22 touchdowns. He was a two-time IFCA Top 50 all-state selection, and he was named the IFCA position award winner for wide receivers as a senior.

Cooper committed to Indiana under coach Tom Allen in the class of 2022, the highest-ranked class in program history at No. 25 in the nation, according to the 247Sports Composite rankings. As a four-star recruit ranked No. 299 in the nation and No. 43 among wide receivers, Cooper was the third-highest ranked recruit in that class and the 14th highest in program history.

As a true freshman, Cooper appeared in four games as a kick returner and maintained his redshirt eligibility. He showed flashes of potential in 2023, like his acrobatic catch against Michigan and his seven-catch, 101-yard performance against Indiana State.

But as Indiana’s offense sputtered for most of the season, Cooper would finish the year with just 11 more catches after the Indiana State game. His talent has always been there, and he feels offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach Mike Shanahan has helped him make small but meaningful tweaks to his game.

A big difference this season is his mentality.

“I think my confidence. Last year, at first I wasn’t playing as much so my confidence got pretty low,” Cooper said during fall camp. “This spring, coming into the year, I was just focusing on that and just trying to get better with that each and every day. That’s something that will help me with my role, and then just playing as hard as I can.”

Cooper has significant competition for snaps on a roster that includes plenty of talented wide receivers like Sarratt, Myles Price, Miles Cross, Ke’Shawn Williams, Donaven McCulley, Andison Coby and E.J. Williams Jr.

Part of what’s made that group effective is a rotation that keeps them all fresh, depth that discourages defenses from double-teaming anyone, and versatility that can beat opponents in a variety of ways.

That rotation likely won’t end, and it shouldn’t. But Cooper’s play through five games is making it hard to take him off the field.